Zach Myers named National Player of the Year for SVSU men's soccer

Myers is the only players in GLIAC history to be named both the Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year.Courtesy SVSU Athletics

UNIVERSITY CENTER, MI — Heading into the fall, Zach Myers had little experience leading the attack for the Saginaw Valley State men’s soccer team.

Fast forward three months and Myers became the lynchpin in a record season for the Cardinals that culminated in Myers being named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America NCAA Division II Player of the Year.

“After the All-American stuff came out, I figured that was it,” Myers said. “I wasn’t thinking anything about Player of the Year, then coach called me and told me to come to his office real quick. I didn’t know if something was wrong, but I was not expecting it at all. It was so cool.”

Myers, 21, finished with 17 goals, two assists and 36 points to earn NSCAA and Daktronics Inc. All-American honors, in addition to being named the GLIAC Offensive Player of the Year.

“For him to rehab a broken leg this spring, while trying to learn a new position and to have so much success is incredible,” said SVSU coach Cale Wassermann in a press release.

A career defenseman, Myers was named the GLIAC Defensive Player of the Year last year — he is the only player in GLIAC history to be named the Player of the Year for both offense and defense — and began to make the transition to offense this year when he suffered a broken ankle in the spring that slowed his transition.

“In our first two games, I had five goals,” he said. “I was surprised because I wasn’t expecting it. Then I went on a dry spell. It was probably midway through the season around late October when I started to feel comfortable. I just felt comfortable with the guys around me and we hit our stride with the winning streak.”

On Oct. 5, the Cardinals (18-3-4) beat Walsh College to start a winning streak that spanned 14 games and didn’t end until SVSU had reached the Division II National Championship, gathering up the program’s first conference tournament and regional championships in school history, while finishing as the No. 2 team in the country.

And Myers was a catalyst for that.

“(Playing offense) was probably a little more fun,” Myers said. “I always liked attacking, but when you’re playing defense, you get those chances once or twice a game. When I switched to offense, I was getting those chance seven, eight, nine times a game.

“It was also a different mindset. Going into a game on defense, I just said that if we didn’t let them score, we’d at least tie. On offense, if we didn’t score, we couldn’t win. There was more pressure trying to score goals than keep goals out.”

Myers proved to be adept at both.

He will be recognized with the other Players of the Year and All-Americans from NCAA Divisions II and III and NAIA at the 2013 NSCAA Convetion in Indianapolis on Jan. 19.